1/13/19
Recap — Needing to get a bad taste out of its mouth following a disappointing and surprising 48-31 defeat at home to Liberty just 24 hours earlier, Emmaus bounced back on Youth Night Saturday at ‘The Hive’ as they raced out to an early 11-0 lead on non-league foe Pottstown and then held off a late Trojan rally for a 70-57 win.
Two Hornets – seniors Zach Sabol and Bryce Diehl – provided most of the offense as they combined for 49 points with Sabol scoring a game-high 28 points, while Diehl matched his season-high with 21.
The victory was the 11th of the season for Emmaus (11-3 overall) who clinched a berth in the District XI playoffs for the 10th straight season. It was also the fourth straight season that the Hornets have defeated Pottstown which competes in the Pac 10 Conference.
“It was good non-league game for us,” said Emmaus head coach Steve Yoder following the win. “Pottstown is a very athletic team.
“The game didn’t need to be as tight as it was,” he added. “We had a horrible second quarter (outscored 21-8) but we won the other three quarters. I was proud of how we responded in the second half after the game was tied at half. We won tonight and it certainly feels a lot better than what happened last night.”
Sabol was dominant inside and nearly perfect from the floor as he connected 13 of 15 field goals and scored 17 points in the second half. It was the seventh 20+ point game for the Hornets 6-9 center who has now scored 833 career points.
“We challenged Zach tonight to be more physical and have his presence be more felt,” said Yoder. “He’ll be the first one to tell you that last night (vs Liberty) he probably didn’t work as hard as he needed to on the block and it happens. He does so much for us and he’s an amazing player. Fortunately it was just one night and he was back to his dominant self tonight.”
Diehl finished 9-of-18 from field, including 2-of-3 from three-point range. His 21-point effort was his second in the last week.
“The last few games Bryce is really coming on,” said Yoder. “He is somebody we ask to do a lot of other things, especially defensively. We extend him defensively so his offense probably suffers a little bit, but right now he’s in a rhythm and I’m very proud of Bryce.”
Teammate and fellow senior Mark Swedberg just missed double figures finishing with 9 points, while classmate Devon Boyko added a career-high 7 points for the Hornets who shot 47 percent (30-of-64) for the game.
Pottstown (6-7) was led in scoring by senior guard Floyd Dashiell who poured in a team-high 27 points. Teammate sophomore Robert Burress added 12.
Prior to the game, the three local youth associations were recognized — Lower Macungie Youth Association (LMYA), Emmaus Youth Association (EYA) and Upper Macungie Youth Association (UMYA).
Emmaus will return to the hardwood on Tuesday, January 15 when they travel to East Stroudsburg North before returning home on Friday, January 18 to host Allen. Both games start at 7 p.m.
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Pottstown – Floyd Dashiell 11 2-2 27, Donovan Towson 2 0-0 6, Tre Bass 1 1-2 3, Robert Burress 5 2-3 12, Corey Cottman 0 0-0 0, Jusaun Jones 2 0-0 6, Shane Duncan 1 0-0 3. Totals: FG 22, FT 5-6 , 3s (8 – Dashiell 3, Towson 2, Jones, Duncan)
Emmaus – Zach Sabol 13 2-4 28, Bryce Diehl 9 1-3 21, Ethan Parvel 1 0-0 3, Mark Swedberg 4 1-4 9, Devon Boyko 3 1-2 7. Subs: Josh Moyer 1 0-0 2, Cam Brooks 0 0-0 0, Danny Bohman 0 0-0 0. Totals: FG 30-64, FT 6-13, 3s (3 – Diehl 2, Parvel)
Pottstown – 11 – 21 – 10 – 15 – 57
Emmaus – 24 – 8 – 19 – 19 – 70
